Until Friday: Toronto Maple Leafs

 I'm running out of cliches when it comes to the Maple Leafs' playoff push. After another Tuesday night come-from-behind special, the Leafs live to see another day (how do you like that one?).

If you missed the game, you missed one hell of a goal by the New York Islanders. A real doozy. I've been watching hockey a long, long time and have never seen a goal like the one Rob Davison scored last night. It was probably the ugliest goal I have ever seen in my life. If you missed it, here it is in all its glory.

Ugly eh? I told you so. A hop, skip, jump and a right turn - "in mid air, mind you" - and into the net.

The goal, and how he reacted to it, said a lot about Vesa Toskala. A lesser goalie (ie: Andrew Raycroft) wouldn't have been able to rebound and finish the rest of the contest off strong. Toskala, however, is the real deal. He shook it off, and took the goal for what it was - a complete and utter fluke - and kept the Leafs in the game until they woke up in the third period. He made some big saves, especially a beauty late in the third on Mike Comrie. I have crazy man love for Toskala. He's a true rudey, and has been a bright, shining light in another dark season for Toronto.

Going into the third period down 1-0, I figured this was how the Leafs season would come to an end. At the hands of the Islanders and Wade Dubielewicz again, just like last season (a part of me died last April when Dubie and the Isles beat the Devils on the final day of the regular season - in a bloody shootout to boot - to deny the Leafs a playoff berth).

To add insult to injury, the winning goal was going to be Davison's bouncer, or so I thought. I think it would have been kind of fitting, though, to go down like that, you know? To suffer another heartbreaking defeat in Long Island thanks to a goal that would most certainly serve as a microcosm for a season gone so horribly wrong.

But like Vanessa Williams, the Leafs saved their best for last. Huge shoutouts to my boy Kyle Wellwood who had a monster third period, scoring the tying goal on a beauty deflection while driving hard to the net, and assisting on Pavel Kubina's game-winning power play tally.

Wellwood has taken a lot of heat this year, especially in the blogosphere. I know the gentlemen at He Score, He Shoot! really hate the guy, but I still have faith in the little magician and believe he is an integral piece of the Leafs puzzle going forward.

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